Berlage, Nancy K. (Author)
Louisiana State University Press
Physical Details: ix + 308 pp., illustrations, bib., index
Language: English
One of the largest volunteer movements in the twentieth century, local farm and home bureau organizations have been woefully underrepresented in socio-political studies of the American Farm Bureau Federation. Nancy K. Berlage addresses this omission with an insightful look at how bureau members put university science to work in agricultural and rural life at the local level, even while industrialization and urbanization profoundly shifted the landscape of labor in the United States. In Farmers Helping Farmers, Berlage explores how bureaus served as the locus of science-based agriculture for rural communities. Drawing on community bonds and culturally powerful metaphors to overcome skepticism, bureaus played a critical role in circulating knowledge grounded in the new disciplines of agricultural economics, rural sociology, home economics, veterinary medicine, child science, and public health. Berlage also weaves a novel consideration of women’s roles into the story of farm and home bureaus, noting that these organizations provided the means by which supporters could grapple with issues beyond farming practices, such as child welfare, personal health, and gender ideals. They were also crucial in advancing the underlying mission of the American Farm Bureau Federation to strengthen community and family ties to the benefit of more efficient and productive farms. In addition to bureau documents, Berlage draws from cartoons, films, photographs, and personal correspondence to add a human dimension to this organizational history. The resultant analysis offers a fresh look at the local bureaus’ social, economic, cultural, and political functions and highlights the organizations’ significant influence on American life in the early twentieth century.
...MoreReview Brian Q. Cannon (2017) Review of "Farmers Helping Farmers: The Rise of the Farm and Home Bureaus, 1914-1935". American Historical Review (pp. 1639-1640).
Review Drew Swanson (October 2018) Review of "Farmers Helping Farmers: The Rise of the Farm and Home Bureaus, 1914-1935". Technology and Culture (pp. 978-979).
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